AREQUIPA IS NOT FOR SALE

It seems as if were last night when in defense of the community, my friends and I joined our neighbors in the streets from 10:00 pm to 10:45 pm in a beating of pots and pans. In a matter of minutes it created a chain effect breaking the silence of the night. The solidarity was fantastic. We were determined to fight to the end. In May 2002 in my city-Arequipa, there was an insurrection of the masses against the privatization of two public utilities. The privatization plans of Alejandro Toledo, who was the president at that time, made the community feel indignant because during his election campaign, he made so many promises. One was to not privatize these two electricity companies in Arequipa. The Revolution of 2002 that started in my city and then spread to a third of the whole country had affected my family and my family in a variety of ways.

As a family, we suffered the effects of the people’s protest and confrontations with the police. Our safety was an everyday concern during the months of the insurrection. This was especially true the last month because of the President’s decision to declare a curfew in my city. That meant that our constitutional freedoms were suspended. Furthermore, Arequipa was under army control. In response to the curfew and the institution of martial law, the people increased the protests. They set up roadblocks across the principal streets of the city and became more emotional. I couldn’t have been more worried about my parents every time they left for work. The radical protesters at the barricades tried to stop my parents and other people who worked in the center of the city from passing through because they didn’t want anyone going to work until the protests ceased. Consequently, it was so dangerous for my parents to go from our house to their work and back every day.

My education was effected as well. I was in my first year of law school, so I continued going to school even though the protests were getting worse. However, the strikes turned more violent when the police charged the crowd. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. As a result, some of my friends from the university joined in the popular protest. In fact, two students died during one confrontation with the police. After that, the classes at the local universities were suspended. I couldn’t attend classes for almost a week. When the classes started up again, we were charged with extra homework as well as spending additional hours at the school, but none of us complained about it.

Even though there was a lot of violence from some protesters in the city center, most of us still acted in a peaceful way. For example, in my community and in all the neighborhoods in Arequipa, we conducted a nonviolent protest that we called “el cacerolazo”. This meant that twice a day, I used to came out of my house and join the other people in the vicinity in the beating of pots and pans, as well as the yelling out slogans at every block “ …Arequipa is not for sale….We need a new president..”. Also, as a show of solidarity for the whole movement, we displayed the Peruvian flag on the rooftop of my house as well as on the houses in Arequipa.

I will never forget the uprising of 2002, not just because of the emotions that originated in me for my own security and as a concerned daughter for the security of my parents, nor because I was a student who was unable to attend the university. I will remember that time because participating in this movement and helping it to achieve victory encouraged me to believe that people who join a just cause can bring down even the biggest obstacles of power in the path towards success. Finally, the Toledo government was forced to withdraw its plans to privatize the two electricity companies. Moreover, the president apologized to the people of Arequipa, the city which had been center of the protest.